I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book while listening to the book on CD. The book is about corruption and murder in London. I recommend ‘The House of Silk’ to mature teenagers and adult readers but due to some of the issues exposed in this book I do not recommend it for readers under 17 years of age. Doctor-at-Bass! T. A.

I really enjoyed this book. One of the better pastiche I have read. I did not guess the ending and thought it was rather well done. It is stated that the Doyle Estate approved this book. I see why after reading it. It is a fast read. Large type, too.

I have read only one other Sherlock Holmes books so this was a great re-introduction. Good read.

I'm quite inclined to agree with the points made by stuvw27. Perhaps this is a decent mystery, but it's not really Sherlock Holmes. If you approach it with that in mind, it might be fun. But I think the felt need to make it be a Sherlock Holmes story is an impediment. There are all these intrusive bits where Holmes says things like "I see you are recently returned from X and have a small dog and left home this AM without breakfast, etc." But when it comes to the real key moments the Holmes character actually goes in instinct or hunch, which was an anathema to the real Holmes. Because I took it as a Holmes story I was quite disappointed--even annoyed. If I'd just taken it as a Victorian mystery it might have been better--hence my rating.

An excellent book!

As a fan of Conan Doyle's original Holmes stories, I was nervous at first about reading a Sherlock Holmes novel written by someone else. The novel itself was thoroughly enjoyable, however the amount of grammatical errors was rather annoying.

Excellent. I can see why the estate has sanctioned this book as it captures not only the relationship between Holmes & Watson but the atmospheric London of the time. People who feel the need to pick apart every phrase & compare it endlessly to a work by Conan Doyle are missing the point....he's gone. But through Horowitz, we can once again enjoy a cracking good read featuring our favourite detective. It's a convoluted mystery with many shady characters & almost no one is whom they purport to be. As with many original Holmes stories, I was kicking myself for what I'd missed when Holmes finally explained his deductions. A horrendous conspiracy is revealed but it is the journey to the finish that keeps you turning the pages. Bravo to Horowitz for having the courage to take on such an icon ( and rabid fan base).

Authorized Holmes novel by the Conan Doyle estate. Horowitz is a wonderful storyteller. I felt this novel was just as good as any of the original Holmes works. I was surprised when the ending came as I was not expecting the crime to be as it was. This is a must read for Holmes fans and mystery lovers.

This is NOT a new Sherlock Holmes novel. There's a character called Sherlock Holmes in it but he is not like the character created by Conan-Doyle. There are several glaring errors that make this person named Holmes a very different person indeed. I will point out one that does not impact the "mystery" of the story. There are many more. On a day trip out of London Watson opines: "Out in the garden, Holmes showed himself to be in an unusually jaunty mood. He strode across the lawn, inhaling the afternoon air and rejoicing in this brief escape from the city, for none of the fogs of Baker Street had followed us here. At this time, there were parts of Wimbledon which were still very much akin to being in the county. We could see sheep huddled together on a hillside beside a grove of ancient oaks. There were but a few houses dotted around us and we were both struck by the tranquilly of the landscape and the strange quality of the light which seemed to throw everything Into sharp focus." Compare with this passage from "The Copper Beeches": "By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and gray roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light green of the new foliage. 'Are they not fresh and beautiful?' I cried with all the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. But Holmes shook his head gravely. 'Do you know, Watson,' said he, 'that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.' 'Good heavens!' I cried. 'Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?' 'They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.' 'You horrify me!' 'But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is not personally threatened.'"

Being a Sherlock Holmes fan, I enjoyed this new sanctioned title by the Conan Doyle estate. I enjoyed the clever twist of having Watson writing this story at the end of his life with the promise that it would not be read or published for 100 years.